Rivers Flow East
by Bellus Caedes
Summary: After her grandmother passes away, things begin to hit the fan and twenty one year old River finds herself living with a family she barley knows. Although unfortunate events lead her to separate from the family and the young woman accidently stumbles upon Rick Grime's group of survivors. She becomes very close friends with Rick and almost instantly feels an attraction towards Daryl
1. Prologue

River sat in the corner of the room absorbing the imagery in front of her; mumbling things not even the devil would dare repeat.

She trembled in fear at the sight of the little boy´s body lying motionless; a bundle of blonde and bloody hair. Beyond him, at the entrance of the house, another small and helpless toddler lay completely limbless. Her eyes slowly shifted to the mother and father who were also severely massacred.

_They were dead_, she thought. They were all dead.


	2. Chapter One

River ran as best as she could despite the fear threatening to pull her down with every log and rock she stumbled over; the instinct to keep herself alive pushed her forward. The girl didn't know for long she'd been running but by the pain in her chest and legs, she knew it wouldn't be much more before her body started to give out. Her lungs ached in pain with every breath and her heart pounded with every growl she heard behind her. They were getting closer, the flesh-eating creatures… the dead. River tried her best to keep the tears forming in her eyes to phase her sight but it was getting harder with every passing second. She could hear those things close behind her and knew she needed to find shelter quick.

But as quickly as these thoughts had entered her mind, they fled as a bony hand grasped her ankle; bringing her down onto the ground. River began to suffocate on the mixture of mud and weed and rocks as she attempted to roll over onto her back. When she finally did, the first thing she saw was a drooling jaw trying to rip away a piece of flesh from her bare leg.

"No, no, no!" she screamed, trying to kick it away with the heel of her boot. She turned left and right in panic; her gaze settling upon a large stone right above her head. River snatched it up as best as she could and turned towards the creature before her.

Tears ran down her cheeks as she mouthed an 'I'm sorry' and her hands lunged the rock over her attacker's head. An awful and horrific crunching sound echoed as the skull split open and the already decaying corpse fell limp over her small frame. River let out a whimper at the sight of half a dozen of these things creeping closer to her. She quickly snapped out of her temporary daze and stood up.

After only a few more minutes of running frantically, she noticed some type of clearing. She figured it was her best shot, even though she wasn't too sure of why she thought that way.

She began running at full speed, the dull moonlight becoming more and more visible. River soon realized the clearing she had seen was not a clearing at all; it was the highway. With all her force she ran and leapt onto the highway; screaming at the sight of a pair of lights heading her way. She let out a shrilling scream as she threw her hands over her head. What she soon realized was a motorcycle swerved past her and fell to the side, sending its driver to the pavement in a loud thud.

River noticed a gray car and a red and white van-type vehicle slowing to a stop. A man rushed out of the driver's side of the first car and rushed over to her. River didn't know how to react so she began screaming.

"Please, don't leave me here, please!" She cried desperately.

The man looked at her with sympathetic eyes and his hands up in the air. "Hey, hey, hey calm down. My name's Rick. What's your name?"

The girl whimpered as she tried to bring her thoughts together. "M-m-m-m-my…" she trailed off unable to speak. "River" she finally managed.

By then, a small crowd of just three people had gathered around them; including the one who had fallen off the motorcycle.

"You okay?" The bearded man asked him.

The man scoffed a yes and listened in on their conversation.

"Rick, what the hell are you doing?" a skinny brunette asked.

"I think she's hurt Lori" Rick responded.

River shook her head frantically and looked Rick in the eyes. "They're coming."

"What?" he asked confused.

Moments passed before the one who was the driver of the motorcycle hollered. "Walkers!"

Everyone's eyes widened as the hurried back to the vehicles. Rick looked back at River and grabbed her face gently, looking at her with an apologetic face. "Please don't leave me" she pleaded over and over.

"Rick!" The brunette screamed half angered and half worried.

He looked back at her and then at River; his face hardening. "Daryl! We don't fit in the cars, take her with you."

The other man looked at them in shock. "The bitch nearly got me killed ´n´ you want me to take her wit' me? What if she's bit?" He questioned.

Rick sighed and shook his head. "Please man, she's just a kid! Look at her!"

Daryl looked at the girl wearing a pair of boots, short shorts and what used to be a white t-shirt. Her long black hair was a tangled mess and she was covered in a mixture of blood and mud. The man cursed and finally accepted.

"Fine but she's gonna ride in front! I don't want her changin' on me and takin' a bite outta my back!"

Rick nodded, silently thanking Daryl for accepting. From behind them, the brunette and the rest were still screaming at them to hurry up. Rick and Daryl helped River onto the motorcycle; Daryl's body firmly resting behind her small one. Rick ran back to the car and started it up just in time to miss the deadly creatures menacing to rip their warm flesh apart.

River began to cry again, this time silently as she fell back against the strong man's body. She didn't know if this had been some kind of miracle, but all she knew was that she felt as safe as ever since all this end-of-the-world shit started. With that in mind, she slipped into a sort of slumber; her body finally giving out on her.


	3. Chapter Two

Lori stared back at her husband with a furious glare. "What the hell were you thinking Rick?"

The irritated man looked back at her for a split second, not wanting to take his eyes off the road longer than necessary. "I was thinking ´bout us. You saw her, she's just a kid!"

Their son, Carl, sat in the back seat beside Carol in silence. Lori let out a sort of laugh of disbelief. "Yeah, any good that did the last time you saved someone! You never thought this might turn out like the whole Randall situation? Huh?"

"Lori, for God's sake! She's a girl, a young girl! I thought you'd understand!" Rick replied, getting on edge.

"What if she's bitten and turns on the motorcycle with Daryl?" She asked, determined to prove Rick wrong.

The man bit his lip and replied as coolly as possible. "Daryl is certainly capable of handling himself, if not he wouldn't of accepted." Rick turned to Carol, hoping she would side on him about this. She said nothing and turned away to look out of the window.

"Fine, then once we get to someplace, I'll give you the gun. You can finish her off then! I'm tired of doing all the dirty work around here; we've lost enough as it is. I'm not losing the last bit of humanity I have left to kill a defenseless girl!" He hollered.

Carl began sniffing in the backseat, tensed from the argument. He had learned best not to talk back to his dad in such a state. He knew that if he was going to gain any responsibilities in the group, he would just have to stay out of it. Carol on the other hand wanted to avoid the whole mess. She had had her share of that with Ed and was still mourning the loss of her little girl. The last thing she needed was to get in the middle of an argument between husband and wife.

So with a simple "You'd think you lost it already…" Lori trailed off, surely meaning Shane. He had confessed just a night before to the group about what had happened and how he was obliged to kill his best friend.

Rick shook away the thought and looked over at Daryl every once in a while, knowing in his heart that the girl who they had picked up from the highway wasn't bitten. She was a young woman who had been escaping from death itself, just as they were. Half of him knew that he also did it for Sophia. Even though this new girl was probably in her early twenties, she was just as defenseless as the little girl had been. He knew it was the right thing to do and he wasn't going to have his mind changed on that.

After a few hours of driving in the mist of the early night, Rick Grime's group had found an abandoned gas station. They established a perimeter and decided to stay there for the night; figuring it was better than traveling deep into the darkness without any prior sleep.

Daryl had picked up the passed out girl and settled her down on an old and dusty blanket he had found lying around the small, run-down building. He looked at her; wondering if she was bit, where she came from, why she was alone.

He went on to sit opposite of her in a corner and studied the girl carefully. He didn't trust her one bit. But after the whole scenario at the farm, he knew best than to defy Rick. He had looked to him, of all people, to defend the camp after Shane started going nuts. He was a good man and he would respect his decisions. Although he also promised himself to watch the girl carefully until they proved she was harmless and if it came to it, he'd kill her. For the best of the group, to keep them safe from any harm presented to them


End file.
